Vehicle buffer device



G. A. LYON.

VEHICLE BUFFER DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1921. RENEWED MAY 15, 1922.

1549,55 Patented June 27,1922.

. ing action with respect thereto.

UN so STATES PATENT oFncE.

anonen ALBERT LYON, or PHILADELPHiA, PENNSYLVANIA.

VEHICLE BUFFER DEVICE.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GEORGE ALBERT LYON, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have made a certain new and useful Invention Relating to Vehicle Buffer Devices, of which the following is a specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, which forms part of the same.

This invention which. is a continuation in part of that disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 424,685 filed November 17, 1920, relates especially to resilient buffer or bumper devices for automobiles or other vehicles in which the spring steel or other resilient strips or .members have clamped .thereto, a resilient sheet metal or other contact clamping device having a vertically wide contact face throughout the central part of the buffer, and preferably having in- I tegral clamping members to adjustabl or otherwise clamp thereto the buffer ront strips. Such vertically extending clamping devices may be advantageously formed of spring steel strip or sheet metal three sixteenths to five sixteenths of an inch thick more or less, and having if desired vertically separated contact portions, one of which may be substantially in line.with the buffer front strips one or more of which may extend across the buffer front behind or adj acent the cooperating contact clamping member. These different front contact portions maybe separated from-each other vertically to the desired extent, so as to secure a front collision face which may be substantially fiat if desired, and which may have a vertical width of six or eight inches more or less in some cases. With the present type automobiles in which the front frame members are arranged quite close to the ground, it is often desirable to have this collision contact face extend upward more than downward with respect to the buffer front strip or member, and any of these types of clampin contact devices may ifjdesired be forme with integrally stamped or formed clamping members thereon, which may more or less fit around or enclose the cooperating front strip so as to have considerable align- In many cases it is desirable to form this spring. steel or other contact clamping member with a polished nickel plate finish, so as to have a desirable appearance when secured upon the Serial No. 561,166.

buffer members with which it may be used. In the accompanying drawing showing in a somewhat-diagrammatic way various illustratlve embodiments of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a of buffer.

F 1g. 2 1s a transverse vertical section taken substantially along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

perspective view of one form.

. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 2'? 1922 Application filed 'June 10, 1921, Serial No; 476,584. Renewed May 15, 19 22. 7

' black finished or other spring steel strip cases be advantageously arranged in overlappingor reenforcing position. As is indicated in Fig. 1, a Lyon type spring buffer is shown comprising the attaching arm or member such as 1 connected with the end loop 4 through the outwardly extending bend or curved portion 3. This spring steel strip may be extended inward from the end loop 4, so that this front strip 9 ma extend across the buffer front and overlap t e corresponding front strip 7 of the other spring steel strip buffer member, which may have an end loop 6, curved portion 5 and attaching member 2. l

Instead of or in addition to the usual clamping devices, these bufi'er front strips or impact receiving members 7 9, may be adjustably or otherwise connected by clamping members formed integrally if desired with'the wide face contact member used to reinforce and extend the buffer front. As

.shown'in Fig. 1 this contactv clamping member which may be formed of tempered spring steel or other suitable strong or resilient material, may 'haveseveral vertically separated contact portions such as 1 1, 12, one of which is preferably substantially in line with the clamping ends 14, 15 of this contact and clamping device, while the one or more vertically separatedmembers such as 12 may be several inches away therefrom ac cording to the particular conditions to be met. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3 this sheet metal contact and clamping device maybe formed with integral clamping members ad- .jacent its ends and also other portions if desired, and for this purpose, the spring steel plate may be originally stamped out with tongues or projections which maybe subsequently stamped or. otherwlse bent or formed into the enclosing clamping members where the ends of these tongues 16, 20 are brought close together and perforated for the clamping bolt 19. In this way these horizontally separated clamping members may securely and rigidly clamp the buffer front strips 7, 9v in adjusted position and some of these clamping members are preferably located on either side of the buffer front approximately in line with the separated attaching members 1, 2, which may be formed on the buffer strip. This brings the clamping members adjacent the ends 8, 10 of these overlapping or reenforcing front strips which may if desired be substantially straight throughout this front connecting portion. It is desirable to further strengthen or reenforce the contact clamping dev ce by stamping or forming reenforcing st1ffening ribs such as 18 thereon, and by forming these ribs on the upper edges of the buffer, a pleasing appearance is given thereto as well as greatly strengthening the contact device under collision conditions. As above indicated, the amount of separation between the lower edge 15 of the upper contact portion and the adjacent part of the lower portion "11 may be several inches or more, and in many cases it may be at least as great a vertical separation as the width of the buffer strip which is usually about two to two and one half inches in the standard Lyon bumpers.

Fig. 4 shows another form of the device in which the contact clamping device used to reenforce and enlarge the contact portion of the bufier front is formed with two vertically separated contact portions 22, 23, which in this instance are both vertically displaced from the end clamping portions 24, 25 of the device so as to be correspondingly out of line with the front strips 7, 9 of the buffer, one or both of which may advantageously extend across this clamping contact device. This clamping device is also in this instance, preferably formed of tempered spring steel about a quarter of an inch or so thick, and may have reenforcing stiffening ribs such as 28 stamped or formed upon its edges where they do not interfere -with the cooperating front strip of the buffer. As indicated in Fig. 5, these adjacent reenforcing ribs may be arranged adja cent or in substantial contact with the edges of the buffer front strips, so as to assist in holding them in alignment although the integral or other clamping devices which may be used at the ends of the contact device are in many cases suflicient fof this purpose. Integral strips or ears on the contact plate may be stamped or forced around into the position indicated in Fig. 5 in which the the buffer front is thus secured as well as giving the buffer a pleasing appearance. This buffer contact device may for example, be given a nickel finish and be used in connection with black enamel finish spring strip members.

This invention has been described in connection with a number of embodiments, forms, proportions, parts, arrangements, materials, methods of connection and use, to the details of which disclosure the invention is not of course to be limited, since what is claimed as new and what is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

1. The automobile buffer formed of spring steel stri and comprising attaching arms, connecte end loops and connected adjustably overlapping front strips, and a resilient sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with ribbed vertically separated contact portions and with integral enclosing clamping members cooperating with said front strips substantially .as far apart as said attaching members to adjustably and securely clamp said front s rips and contact device together.

2. The automobile buffer formed of spring steel strip and comprising attaching arms,

connected end loops and connected adj ustably overlapping front strips, and a resilient sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with vertically separated contact portions and clamping members cooperating with said front strips to adjustably and securely clamp said front strips and contact device together.

3. lhe automobile buffer formed of spring steel strip and comprising attaching arms, and connected overlapping front strips, and a resilient sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with ribbed vertically separated contact portions having several times the vertical width of said strip and with integral enclosing horizontally separated clamping members to adjustably and securely clamp said front strips and contact device together.

4, The automobile bufl'er formed of spring steel strip and comprising attachmg arms and connected overlapping front strips, and a resilient sheet metal contact and metal contact and clamping device formed with ribbed vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strips and the other raised above them at least as much as the strip width and separated integral enclosing clamping members to adjustably and securely clamp said front strips and contact device together. 9

6. The automobile buffer formed of spring steel strip and comprising attach ing arms and overlappingfront strips, and

a resilient sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strips and the other raised above them at least as much as the strip width and separated integral clamping members to securely clamp said front strips and contact device together.

7. The automobile buffer formed of spring steel strip and comprising attach ing arms and overlapping front strips, and a sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with vertically separated cont'act portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strips and the other raised above them at least as much as the strip width and separated clamping members to securely clamp said front strips and contact device together. 8.-The automobile bufi'er formed of spring steel strip and comprising end loops and connected front strip, anda resilient sheet metal contact and clamping device formed with vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strip and the other vertically displaced therefrom at least as much as the strip width and clamping members on each side of the buffer to securely clamp said front strip and contact device together.

9. The automobile bufier formed of spring steel strip and comprising end loops and connected front strip, and a contact and clamping device formed with vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strip and the other vertically displaced therefrom and clamping members on each side of the buffer to securely clamp said front strip and contact device together;

10. The spring steel contact and clamping device adapted for use with resilient front strip buffers and formed with ribbed ver tically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strip and the other vertically displaced therefrom at least as much as the strip width and integral enclosing clamp-- ing members ada'pted to adjustably and securely clamp said contact device to said front strip.

11. The spring steel contact and clamping device adapted for use with resilient front strip buffers and formed with .vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strip and the other vertically displaced therefrom at least as much as the strip width and integral clamping members adapted to adjustably and securely clamp said contact device to said front strip. 1

12. The spring steel contact and clamping device adapted for use with resilient front strip buffers and formed with vertically separated contact portions one of which is substantially in line with said front strip and the other vertically displaced therefrom and clamping members adapted to adjustably and securely clamp said contact device to said front strip. 13. The resilient sheet metal vertically extending contact and clamping device adapted for use with spring strip automobile buffers and comprising a relatively flat front roollision'face having vertically separated ribbed reenforced portions and integral clamping members substantially in line with one of said portions to engage and securely-hold the bufier strips.

14. The resilient sheet metal vertically extending contact and clamping device adapted for use with spring strip automo bile buffers and comprising a vertically wide collision face' having vertically separated reenforced portions and integral clamping members substantially in line with one offisaid portions to engage and securely hold the buffer strips.

GEORGE ALBERT LYON. 

